Bank Foreclosed Homes Maintenance Program in Florida

Cape Coral, Florida has a program that helps the city maintain bank foreclosed homes and keep them from becoming a blight to the community. An ordinance in the city of Cape Coral allows it to require banks to register bank foreclosed homes for $150. The city uses the money collected from registration fees to pay for the maintenance of foreclosed properties.

It used to be that city code enforcement officers received complaints from residents about abandoned, vacant and repossessed properties in their neighborhoods. Residents said that these foreclosed homes attract crime, vandals and became eyesores in their communities.

Code enforcement officers used to clean the foreclosed properties and secure them so as not to become magnets to criminals and squatters. And all the while, the city was the one shouldering the expenses of cleaning, securing and maintaining these foreclosure properties.

But because of the city’s limited budget, it decided to start charging banks for the maintenance of bank foreclosed homes. Currently, the city has 1,800 registered homes and already collected over $100,000 in registration fees from banks.

The extent of the foreclosure problem in the city is a cause of concern to both officials and residents. The Cape Coral-Fort Myers area has the second highest foreclosure rate in the country in April 2009, with one in every 57 houses receiving filings of foreclosure during the month. The area’s foreclosure activity jumped by 31 percent from March.

Statewide, first quarter 2009 foreclosure rate in Florida increased 36 percent compared with the same quarter the previous year. According to RealtyTrac’s U.S. Foreclosure Market Report, filings of foreclosure were made on 119,220 properties in the first three months of the year, representing a drop of 12 percent from the last quarter of 2008.

The report noted that one out of 73 houses in Florida received filings of foreclosure during the first quarter of 2009, making the state the fourth highest in the country in terms of foreclosure rate.

In March, the state registered 47,131 houses with foreclosure filings, a 2 percent jump from February and 56 percent increase from March the previous year.

According to James J. Saccacio, RealtyTrac Chief Executive Officer, Florida lost over 400,000 jobs in 2008 and its unemployment rate is above the country’s average rate. He added that an above average unemployment rate, decrease in home prices and an increasing number of unsold homes have contributed to the continuing rise in bank foreclosed homes.

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